Jayme Lawson, co-star of Sinners, recently spoke about how Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo handled the BAFTA racial slur incident.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the NAACP Image Awards, she gave “a big shout-out to Mike and Delroy” for “the grace and the dignity that they exercised.” She said that John Davidson’s “disability got exploited that night, and it led to multiple offenses.”
“Institutionally, we still don’t understand what inclusion means,” Lawson argued. “Just because you invite someone into a space. But you don’t provide the necessary resources to keep them and everyone else in that room safe by them being there; that’s not inclusivity. That’s exploitation.”
Lawson noted how some parts of the ceremony were edited out, but not the n-word.
“A real lack of care was exercised for those two Black men,” Lawson said.
“We know the BBC knows how to take care of what they care about because they censored a bunch of other [words]. They went so far as to make sure certain things weren’t topics of conversation. And they censored Akinola [Davies Jr.]’s speech, the director of My Father’s Shadow, which is an amazing film, by the way. So you censored one Black man. You failed to protect two others.
“You do not care for our dignity, our humanity,” she continued. “And you want to celebrate our art, but you won’t protect [us]. And that’s why we celebrate Sinners. That’s why we celebrate Ryan [Coogler]. That’s why we show up to the NAACP, because those are spaces… where we feel safe.”
While taking the stage at the NAACP Image Awards, Lindo thanked everyone for supporting him and Jordan after the incident.
“I’d just like to officially say, I appreciate, we appreciate all the support and love we have been shown in the aftermath of what happened last weekend. It means a lot to us.”